Five area girls basketball teams sit on District 11 bubble

With just over one week left in the regular season, time is slipping away for teams still trying to qualify for the District 11 girls basketball playoffs.

The 2012-13 version of the Bubble Bunch figures to have some tense moments over the next few days.

Here's a look at what five teams still scrambling for playoff spots need to do in the next week to extend their season (all records through Wednesday).

• Freedom (7-11 overall, 5-6 Lehigh Valley Conference). The Patriots must go 2-1 in their final three LVC games to reach .500 in the league. Thursday's game against Easton was a must-get, because one of their remaining LVC contests is against Bethlehem Catholic, undefeated against teams from Pennsylvania this season.

If Freedom beats Easton — it won the teams' first regular-season meeting — it likely will face a win-to-qualify contest with Liberty next Friday. Liberty beat the Patriots by six points in their first meeting.

• Pen Argyl (8-10 overall, 6-7 Colonial League). The Green Knights need to win two of their three remaining league contests to qualify. They should have no trouble getting one win, with 2-17 Northern Lehigh visiting them Friday.

If Pen Argyl beats the Bulldogs, it would have to defeat either Palmerton or Bangor next week to secure a district berth. The Green Knights beat Palmerton by four points in the teams' first regular-season meeting and lost by 14 to Bangor.

• Wilson (5-14 overall, 5-8 Colonial). The Warriors went into Thursday's game against Saucon Valley needing to win their final three games to reach .500 in the league. They beat two of the three teams left on their schedule, Saucon Valley and Salisbury, in the first round of South Division games but have gone 1-7 in their last eight contests.

Even if Wilson wins its next two games, it would have to beat a Notre Dame-Green Pond squad that has already handled the Warriors twice to get into districts.

• Saucon Valley (8-10 overall, 4-9 Colonial). The Panthers headed into Thursday's game with Wilson needing a 3-1 finish to get to .500 overall. They are a long shot to beat Southern Lehigh next week — the Spartans won the first matchup between the teams by 25 points — so they probably need to beat Wilson, Blue Mountain and Palisades to reach districts.

• Stroudsburg (6-11 overall, 5-5 Mountain Valley Conference). The Mounties' district chances come down to their final two league contests. A win over East Stroudsburg South or Pleasant Valley next week would ensure a .500 league mark. Stroudsburg lost its first matchup to both those teams, falling by a combined 54 points.

The Mounties could wind up in the unusual spot of missing the district playoffs yet qualifying for their league tournament. They are 11/2 games ahead of Pocono Mountain East for the fourth and final spot in the MVC playoffs.

Should the Mounties make the MVC tournament and win it, they would wrap up a district berth even if they had a sub-.500 overall and MVC record.

A Patriots pivot

Of the five bubble squads above, Freedom may be the biggest surprise.

Ron Garza is the Patriots' third coach in as many years. He didn't take over the program until mid-October, when former coach and Freedom star DeAnna Rayam took an assistant-coaching job at the college where she played, East Stroudsburg University.

Despite the late start and a tough early-season schedule in which they played Parkland, Bethlehem Catholic, Liberty and Central Catholic in their first six contests, the Patriots will play meaningful games over the final week of the regular season. Their seven overall wins and five LVC victories are more than they had over the last two seasons combined (five overall wins, three LVC wins).

The Patriots have improved with a rotation in which just one senior, leading scorer Ashley Gordon, is logging major minutes.

"I think our defense has really improved from where we started to where we are now," Garza said. "We're mixing things up. We're always trying to prepare and scout pretty hard. We knew we wouldn't have a lot of size.

"We're really trying to take away the better things the other teams are doing. We started out with the tougher teams in the beginning. We were hoping we could be in some of these game at the end."

One plus for Garza was his familiarity with some of his players. He was an assistant at Freedom two years ago under Jerry Calabrese.

The Patriots' playoff chances took a hit when they dropped a one-point game to Emmaus on Tuesday. They led by two points late but missed two free throws and then gave up a three-point play in the final 10 seconds, falling 37-36.

Garza is pleased just to have Freedom playing in tight games after a recent past that featured a lot of lopsided scores.

"Our future looks good down low," he said. "We have some kids that I think are going to help us next year. I think we're going in the right direction."